Light of the Veil by Richard Fox

Author:Richard Fox [Fox, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure, Space Opera, Military
ISBN: 9781982193065
Google: PVkQ0AEACAAJ
Amazon: 1982193069
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2023-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

The party walked through a field of knee-high grass, the tops bent with heavy nodules. Eabani and Dastin were on the flanks, Maru and Neff were a few steps ahead of Sarai and Jayce. Jayce plucked up a stalk and bent the silver-blue length in two spots. It bruised black and little seeds fell off.

“Do you know what that is?” Sarai asked.

“No idea, but it does seem kinda neat,” he said.

“So, you don’t know if it’s poisonous or toxic,” she said flatly.

“I figured it wouldn’t be. Water won’t stop thirst. Food won’t feed us. Why would there be anything that’ll give us allergies or be poisonous?” Jayce asked.

“Thank the Great Egg.” Eabani rubbed his still slightly swollen nose.

“The Veil—here, things will become different as we travel farther—is close to the reality we know,” Maru said. “Flora and fauna from the other side of the gate are reflected on this side of the Aperture, but with elements of the deep Veil.”

“If it’s a reflection, what if this plant thing and the eggs on the top—”

“You’re holding bragga wheat, it’s a staple across the galaxy,” Sarai said.

“—are the original and the wheat stuff she’s talking about is changed by our side? Our reality. How do you know which is the real one?” Jayce asked.

Maru looked over his shoulder at him.

“Go on . . .” the Adept said.

“If this place gets weirder with every step we take . . . but it doesn’t when we’re back home . . . then . . .” Jayce turned the stalk around in front of him, then tossed it aside.

“Philosophies across centuries and empires have pondered these questions,” Maru said. “No one has a definitive answer. The best stance I’ve learned is to accept the reality you’re in, and not layer on reasoning that does not apply to where you are.”

“We’re here for your Veil stones,” Dastin said. “Not big thinking problems.”

“There’s still value in asking the questions.” Maru raised a finger. “Even if we do not learn the complete solution to the Veil and its relationship to our reality, searching for the solution led to knowledge of how to survive here. How to harvest Veil stones.”

“Is there an end to it?” Jayce asked. “The horizon here is . . . not right.”

“There’s a theory,” Maru said. “But it is neither here nor there while we—”

Eabani raised a fist.

“Contact left.” He swung his pack into the field and went prone behind it.

“I don’t see—Ah!” Dastin pulled Jayce to the ground. His pack rose up his back and smushed his face into the ground. The dirt smelled like citrus and dust stung his eyes.

“Take cover behind your gear.” Dastin put the buttstock of his crossbow to one shoulder and kept the weapon amongst the wheat stalks.

“I see them.” Maru had a monocle to one eye. “Half dozen Vishar. They’re armed.”

The monocle landed next to Jayce, and he looked through it. In the distance were a group of tripedal aliens. Their insectoid exoskeletons were covered in a thin brown skin, their bulbous heads had several antennae that bent and twitched toward the party.

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